Sonogram systems may use a variety of systems and methods to create images of internal body parts for viewing. Basic sonogram systems usually employ a transducer array, made up of a number of transducer elements, coupled to an ultrasound system. The function of the transducer array and system are to create an acoustic beam (a beam of sound waves) to penetrate the human body and then to receive sound waves as they are reflected back to the transducer array from tissues and organs. The reflection of the sound waves may be processed to produce a visual image representing the internal structures of the human body. Sonography, or the use of sonograms for diagnosis, is often employed as a non-invasive way to view fetal growth or to view internal injuries.
Often the area to be imaged is conceptually divided into long, thin strips, called lines. A sonogram machine may then focus an acoustic beam on each line to provide an image of the whole area. The group of lines that make up the image area are referred to as a “frame.” Similarly, during further processing, signal processing equipment, possibly including functions such as digital filters and digital scan conversion, may construct a viewable image from a frame, arranging and filtering the data from the lines in the frame into signals, which when provided to a display, present to a human viewer a visual representation of the area. Real-time imaging may then be provided by, for example, repeating the frames. Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) can be used to perform various functions in the aforementioned ultrasound image acquisitions and processing. For example, various transmit and/or receive circuits (such as may include amplifiers, filters, multiplexors, summers, etc.), beam formers (which control the ultra-sonic pulses to create beams by a transducer array), and like signal processing circuitry may be implemented in ASICs.
An ASIC is a chip developed for employment in a specific system, rather than a general-purpose chip, such as a digital signal processor or a microprocessor. ASICs may be inexpensive to produce once designed and may allow for a smaller chip to perform a particular task in a shorter amount of time. ASICs are usually “hardwired” to perform a specific function, which means that they are less flexible than a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), which may be programmed to perform a specific function by a user in the “field” or a general purpose integrated circuit, such as a CPU. Because ASICs are applications-specific, they are typically not well-suited for use in a number of different system configurations. For example, multiple sonogram systems (even systems from a common manufacturer), such as may provide different levels of image quality or image processing, are often not able to use the same ASICs. Instead, each system must generally employ a unique chip set. Further, traditional sonogram systems that employ ASICs are typically not readily able to accommodate added features after such systems have been manufactured because of the lack of flexibility offered by ASICs. Thus, an old system is not able to be reprogrammed to perform a new mode of operation without significant hardware replacement.